When Morey Wright walked into a barbershop for his regular haircut, he wasn’t expecting to meet Dale “Diezel” Higgs and a group of sweaty people exercising in the back room.
Wright, a 2014 UF Online business administration graduate, met Higgs in a Pompano Beach barbershop in 2012. Higgs, an ex-convict who turned his life around with exercise, is working with Wright on producing the Prison Body Workout.
Higgs, 35, began serving time at 16 years old for selling narcotics. While working toward his GED diploma and several trade courses, like hair styling, he conceptualized the Prison Body Workout, a fitness routine typical for those behind bars.
After graduating, Wright, then 27, joined forces with Higgs to mass-produce the Prison Body Workout, a do-it-yourself fitness program that promises results with household items and a set of dumbbells. The duo launched a Kickstarter campaign Monday to raise funds.
In prison, Higgs exercised in his cell any way he could, including using his rolled-up cot to do push-ups and lunges. When he was released, he trained as a side job.
“I saw the best bodies in the world, and I caught on quickly,” Higgs said. “I didn’t have the routines that everyone usually has, but I gained over 100 pounds of muscles in four years.”
Wright said he saw the routine’s potential that first day in the barbershop.
“I saw this workout and thought, ‘Wow, a lot of people would want to do a workout like this,’” he said.
While the duo intends to use the money they raise to launch a nationwide advertising campaign and sell the DVD set on a large scale, Wright said he sees the Prison Body Workout as an opportunity for ex-convicts to change their lives.
“A training program with former, non-violent inmates can give them a chance to put the skill set they built in prison to use,” he said. “It can help them get their life back together.”
Wright went through test trials and asked for client input, and now he plans to take the brand to a national level and turn the Prison Body Workout into a franchise, which would create local classes instructed by former prisoners.
Wright said the business plan reflects the entrepreneurship he learned as a UF student.
“I had always wanted to be a Gator — it just happened when I was 27,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 4/3/2015 under the headline “UF Online alumnus, ex-convict launch Kickstarter for fitness app”]
